[Chapter II] Never Stop Pursuing Your Dreams: "Global Banking Officer"

This is a story of an ordinary man who dreams to study abroad.

Having taken IELTS test three times, eventually, I got an overall score of 6.5. I was very delighted with this result. By IELTS certificate, I had already had all required documents to apply for the master degree in Economics. I applied to several universities in the United Kingdom and received the letter of acceptance from them. Subsequently, I only needed a financial support through a full scholarship to finance my study.

I planned to apply for the scholarship which was provided by the Indonesian government. I had tried to apply for this scholarship before; unfortunately, I failed the interview test. Learning from that failure, I prepared better for the second attempt. I also believed that my English speaking skill was also better for the interview test.

Yet no one expected that one day after receiving the IELTS certificate, the Global Banking Officers (GBO) training program was opened. This was a training program for the selected employees as the preparation to work at the overseas branches. The criteria to join this program was the employee had to have good English skills, proved by English test certificate. Coincidentally, I just received the certificate one day ago. I enrolled it immediately.

There were several tests to join the GBO training program. During the selection of the GBO training program process, I also applied for the scholarship. At the beginning of 2015, I went to Jakarta to take the interview test for GBO training program and also the second interview test for the scholarship. Luckily, the interview test was not held on the same day, so I did not have a problem with the schedule.

After the scholarship interview test, I obtained information that I was selected to join the GBO training program. I was so delighted with the result. It was my first success. However, I still waited for the result of the scholarship interview test. If I failed with the scholarship interview test, I could not apply for the scholarship again because I had interview test twice. It implied that my dream to study in the United Kingdom would be buried deeply again. 

What I was afraid of happened. I was not selected to receive the scholarship. Despite I was so sad about the scholarship outcome, I was slightly happy because I would join a prestigious training program at my office.

The GBO training program was held in March 2015 in Jakarta. One of the courses in the GBO training program was English. I thought I was lucky because I could join the English course for free. In August 2015, I went to Hong Kong branch to have an internship for one month. I used this opportunity to practice my English skills with the local staff. During the GBO training program, I kept trying to apply for the scholarship to study in Australia and other countries. Unfortunately, I did not get the scholarship; even I did not pass the initial test.

Of this stage in my life, I could take the precious lesson that there was no useless work. Of our hard work, probably we will get the failure, yet we might be achieving another success that we have never thought before. Keep upgrading ourselves and trying to make the dream come true in order to make our dream come true.